| Industry | Comics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1957; 68 years ago (1957) |
| Founder | James Warren |
| Defunct | 1983; 42 years ago (1983) |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, thenNew York City,New York |
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded byJames Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades. Magazines published by Warren includeAfter Hours,Creepy,Eerie,Famous Monsters of Filmland,Help!, andVampirella.
Initially based inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, the company moved by 1965 toNew York City.
Begun by James Warren, Warren Publishing's initial publications were thehorror-fantasy--science fictionmovie magazineFamous Monsters of Filmland andMonster World, both edited byForrest J Ackerman. Warren soon publishedSpacemen magazine and in 1960Help! magazine, with the first employee of the magazine beingGloria Steinem.[1]
After introducing what he called "Monster Comics" inMonster World, Warren expanded in 1964 with horror-comics stories in the sister magazinesCreepy andEerie – black-and-white publications in a standard magazine format, rather than comic-book size, and selling for 35 cents as opposed to the standard comic-book price of 12 cents. Such a format, Warren explained, averted the restrictions of theComics Code Authority, the comic-book industry's self-censorship body:
The Comics Code saved the industry from turmoil, but at the same time, it had a cleansing kind of effect on comics, making them "clean, proper and family-oriented" ... We would overcome this by saying to the Code Authority, the industry, the printers, and the distributors: 'We are not a comic book; we are a magazine.Creepy is magazine-sized and will be sold on magazine racks, not comic book racks".Creepy's manifesto was brief and direct: First, it was to be a magazine format, 8½" × 11", going to an older audience not subject to the Code Authority."[2]
By publishing graphic stories in a magazine format to which the Code did not apply, Warren paved the way for such later graphic-story magazines as theAmerican version ofHeavy Metal;Marvel Comics'Epic Illustrated; andPsycho and other series fromSkywald Publications.
Russ Jones was the founding editor ofCreepy in 1964. A year later,Archie Goodwin succeeded him, withJoe Orlando acting as a behind-the-scenes story editor.[3] Goodwin, who would become one of comics' foremost and most influential writers, helped to establish the company as a leader in its field. From 1965 to 1966, Warren also published the four-issueBlazing Combat, awar-comics magazine with anti-war themes, controversial at the time.[1][4]
After 17 issues ofCreepy and 11 ofEerie, Goodwin resigned as editor in 1967. The movement of Warren's operations from Philadelphia to New York City, combined with a change in distributors and a downturn in the market imposed a cash flow problem on Warren, and Goodwin along with all of the artists except forTom Sutton andRocke Mastroserio (who soon died) departed the company.[5]
During the next two-and-a-half years, Warren's publications consisted primarily of reprints from the early issues. During this period, a variety of editors ran the magazines includingBill Parente,Nicola Cuti, and Warren himself. Things started picking up again for Warren in 1969 with the premiere of its third horror magazine,Vampirella. Many of Warren's original artists returned during this period, as would Goodwin for a period of time in 1970 and 1971. After Goodwin's second departure, editors would includeJ.R. Cochran. The art director wasBilly Graham.
In 1971, Warren began using artists from theBarcelona studio ofSpanish agencySelecciones Illustrada. Over the next few years, Spanish artists would dominate the magazines. Additional Spanish artists from S.I.'sValencia studio began freelancing for Warren in 1974.
In 1973, new editorBill DuBay, who had originally joined the company as an artist early in 1970, transformed Warren's magazines to create a uniform style. The following year, Warren Publishing was dissolved and replaced by Warren Communications, a sister company James Warren had founded in 1972. Dubay was editor for all three of Warren's horror magazines until 1976, except for a short period of time in 1974 where Goodwin returned to edit four issues ofCreepy and two ofVampirella. During this time, the frequency of Warren's magazines was increased to nine issues a year.
In 1974, DuBay oversaw a new black-and-white magazine,The Spirit, which revived acclaimed writer-artistWill Eisner's masked detective of 1940s and early-1950snewspaper Sunday supplements, reprinting the character's seven-page, semi-anthological stories for a new generation. The magazine featured new covers by Eisner and an occasional reprint in color.(The Spirit would later move toKitchen Sink Press.) The same year, Warren debutedComix International, a color magazine reprinting earlier Warren stories.
After Dubay's departure,Louise Jones, his former assistant, headed the editorial staff from 1976 to 1980. Toward the end of Dubay's period of editorship many American artists had returned to the magazines, includingJohn Severin,Alex Toth, andRuss Heath and they contributed many stories during Jones' time as editor. FormerDC Comics publisherCarmine Infantino would also join the company during this period and pencil over 50 stories. Much like the wave of Spanish artists that dominated throughout the mid-1970s, a number of artists from thePhilippines would begin contributing during this period. Dubay returned as editor after Jones' departure, using the alias "Will Richardson".
Toward the end of the 1970s, Warren published two new magazines edited by Dubay: the science-fiction anthology1984, in 1978 (which would change its name to1994 two years later); and, in 1979,The Rook, starring atime-traveling adventurer whose stories had appeared inEerie since 1977.
James Warren's bad health, combined with changing tastes and business problems, led to internal turmoil and editorial turnover.[6][7] The company suspended publishing in late 1981,[8] editor Bill Dubay left in 1982,[9] and Warren declared bankruptcy in 1983.[citation needed] In August 1983,Harris Publications acquired company assets at auction,[10] and published new and reprintedVampirella comics;Creepy #146 (Summer 1985), continuing the numbering of the original series and containing both new and reprinted material,[11]Creepy: The Limited Series, a four-issue miniseries of new stories;[12] and other Warren-related comics. A 1998 lawsuit by James Warren[13] resulted in his reacquisition of the rights toCreepy andEerie.Dark Horse Comics began issuing reprints with the ongoing licensed seriesCreepy Archives in 2008,[14] and began publishing new material withCreepy vol. 2 in 2009[15] andEerie vol. 2 in 2012.[16]
Illustrators included such established artists as Orlando,Neal Adams,Gene Colan,Frank Frazetta,Angelo Torres,Roy G. Krenkel,Gray Morrow,Al Williamson,Johnny Craig,Reed Crandall,Alex Toth,John Severin,Russ Heath andWally Wood, plus a newer group of talents, includingDan Adkins,Richard Bassford,Roger Brand,Frank Brunner,Rich Buckler,Dave Cockrum,Nicola Cuti,Richard Corben,Ken Kelly,Pepe Moreno,Mike Royer,Tom Sutton, andBerni Wrightson.
The Spanish artists fromSelecciones Ilustradas includedEsteban Maroto,José Ortiz,Luis Bermejo,Rafael Aura Leon,Luis Garcia,Jose Gonzalez,Isidro Mones, Martin Salvador,Fernando Fernandez,Leopold Sanchez,Ramon Torrents,Jose Bea,Vicente Alcazar, Jose Gual, Felix Mas and Jaime Brocal. Artists from thePhilippines includedAlex Niño,Rudy Nebres,Alfredo Alcala andAbel Laxamana. Other international artists who worked for Warren include Gonzalo Mayo (Peru),Pablo Marcos (Peru), Leo Duranona (Argentina) and Paul Neary (U.K.).
Cover artists forCreepy,Eerie andVampirella included Adkins, Frazetta, Kelly, Morrow, Sutton,Ken Barr,Vaughn Bodé,Pat Boyette, Ron Cobb, Richard Conway,Jack Davis,H.R. Giger,Basil Gogos, Bill Hughes,Terrance Lindall, Gutenberg Monteiro, Albert Nuetzell, Vic Prezo,Sanjulián, Vincente Segrelles, Kenneth Smith, Enrich Torres andBoris Vallejo.
Writers included Goodwin, Cuti, Dubay,Al Hewetson,Bruce Jones,Doug Moench,Budd Lewis,Gerry Boudreau,Rich Margopoulos,Don McGregor,Steve Skeates,Jim Stenstrum,Lynn Marron, andT. Casey Brennan.
The first-known romanticinterracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed tounderground comix) occurred in Warren'sCreepy #43 (Jan. 1972), in "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by writerDon McGregor and artistLuis Garcia. McGregor said in 2001 that the kiss was actually due to the artist misunderstanding the line "This is the clincher" in the script.[17] McGregor would later script color comic books' first known interracial romantic kiss, in the "Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds" feature inAmazing Adventures #31 (July 1975).
Ongoing publications;one-shots not listed
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